Hurricane Charlie Update
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here for pictures
Here is the latest update from
Marsha and Ray Starsman.
Greetings from Punta Gorda,
After nearly 6 weeks we are
finally back living in our home (in the room with the Murphy
bed while they finish tiling the house). Being able to find
some respite at the Keith's beautiful home really kept us sane
and functioning.
I have attached some of the
photos we took just a few days after the storm. I will send
the after pictures soon (I hope). It is a slow go finding both
material and personal to repair our homes, but slowly and
surely we are making progress. My new tiles are just gorgeous,
and they seem very easy to care for. Of course both the
remnants of Charlie and the dust from the tiles are calling to
me so I will be spending my days cleaning and praying that no
more storms come our way.
Starship is still in Venice
while they finish up the warranty work on her (their large
lift broke delaying the work which required hauling her). It
is okay with me since the weather here has
not been too stellar for boating.
Do keep in touch, and if my
Florida buddies need a place to crash, we will make room. I
know how much we appreciated the offers of a safe haven when
the storms were headed our way .
Gosh, Ray. Just your
Florida buddies? How about your Pennsylvania buds?
Glad things are getting better.
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Crusader Engines - Auxiliary Tanks
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| I
heard from members who had on-going problems with their
auxiliary tanks and engines. Sadly, one of the ones I
heard from was the original member who thought his problems had
been resolved. Here's the latest. "Carver
is now saying that they've never had the problem we're
encountering of water getting into the auxiliary tank and
therefore are washing their hands of this continuing problem.
Presently, we cannot use the auxiliary tank (one of three on our
boat). And Carver is not willing to pay for giving us a better
fuel filter/water separator system to defeat the "water
monster." The boat came with these mickey mouse coffee-cup
sized Racors and one is a bitch to access. Do you have any
Carver "boat talk" archives on folks who have had a)
fuel delivery problems, b) engine hesitation problems, c) water
getting into any of the gas tanks??? Carver is saying in writing
that they have NEVER HAD any of these problems on their
boats."
Here are some other responses.
"Always check the
O-ring on the fuel fill caps when fueling. If (when) these
fail you will get rain water leaking into the tanks."
"In reference to your
paragraph on Engine problems update, I have always had trouble
with my auxiliary tank
under the swim platform. Every time I try to use it it causes my
engines to shut down except at idle. Yankee Point Marina
installed a system to keep water out but it doesn't
help."
"A
mechanic has visually inspected the "O-ring" on the
gas caps and cannot see
any visual sign of impairment or defect. Additionally, we've
torn apart the master stateroom with the mechanic down at the
auxiliary tank with hoses disconnected, etc. and me out on the
transom, flooding the gas cap area with hose water, as well as
the tank-vent opening on the hull, and not a drop of water is
getting through -- by this means."
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And you thought you had problems
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| People
sometimes ask if I make up the stuff that goes into the
newsletter. The answer is simply NO. Life is too
funny in general to have to make up stuff. Here's an
example. I was admiring a member's boat and asked how he
happened to end up with that particular boat. It turns out
that he traded several boats before buying this one. He
acquired one boat that had to be fixed up. He made the
necessary cosmetic and structural repairs over the winter and,
on a nice sunny day, went out with his wife for an afternoon
cruise. Shortly into the cruise, they noticed that they
were itchy and uncomfortable. Upon closer examination,
they realized that the boat, and now they, had fleas. The
eggs must have been dormant until warmer weather and, then,
PARTY TIME. |
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Circuit Breaker Problems Notice of Recall
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| Here
is the link to the USCG web site with the recall information.
The USCG indicates that there is a risk of fire with these
breakers. http://www.uscgboating.org/recalls/recalls_detail.aspx?id=030062T
If your Carver Yacht is
affected, let me know if you were contacted by a dealer or by
Carver to have this recall completed.
Several of you responded to
the article last month concerning defective circuit
breakers. One member asked, "The dealer I dealt with
replaced the defective circuit breaker with another circuit
breaker from my original panel. How do I know this one is
not defective?" Good question given the next note
from a member. "There was a recall of circuit
breakers. The recall was from BLUE SEA SYSTEMS Address 425
Sequoia Drive, Bellingham, WA 98226 Attn
1260. The recall was for Circuit Breaker Assembly.
" This recall notice is posted above.
Here are some additional
comments, "I have a 2003 360 Sports Sedan and we have
electrical problems with the generator as well. When we
attempt to run the generator and both AC units, the circuit
breaker on the genset throws the breaker on the genset.
There was a recall on the circuit breakers and I filled out the
form and got replacements and replaced several of them and still
no change. I had the Kholer guy out and his only
suggestion was to rewire the AC units to each of the two
circuits you mentioned. I did not think that was a good
idea. When we are attached to shore power we have no
problems. We are careful to let the generator warm up and
we do not run the toaster, water heater, oven, etc., all at
once. The owners manual has the amp requirements for all
the electrical devices. We can run the bigger AC unit,
which is forward, off the generator and we have no problems.
Also, I have watched the volts and amps on the panel and not
seen anything unusual. [the dealer] is supposed to be
trying to get some help from Carver on this problem, but nothing
to date."
Just a quick note on some, but
not necessarily all Carver electrical panel relays. Debbie
and I have a 1998 Carver 355. When switching from shore
power to generator, one must make sure to power down all
electrical circuits that are on before starting up the genny. (
Of course, you have already had the bilge blower/s on for a few
minutes to discharge any potentially hazardous fumes! ) If
you do not shut off all of the circuit breakers before switching
to genny, the relays behind the electrical panel will overload
the contacts in the relays. (The same type of contacts
that are in an old style point/coil distributor system in a
car.) The relays are only rated at 15 amps. The
surge current going through the little contacts in the relays
can be as high as 50 amps! They are not that expensive
(about $25 ), but a pain in the butt to install. On our
boat, it took approximately a year for me to burn up the
contacts! This is not a Carver defect or fault, but
something that can be avoided by using a little common boating
sense! (Something I'm learning a little everyday!)"
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New Club Web Site
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| The
Club moved its web site from one hosting company to another this
month. We made the move to provide a more stable web site - that
is, one that is available most of the time and works faster.
This caused some disruption to every thing. If you sent an email
and did not receive a response, it was probably lost in the
mail. Some Boat Talk posts may have also been lost, along with
some photos in the Owners Album. Not all the news is bad. We've
been able to consolidate all of the Boat Talk posts into one
database. This means that you can search ALL of the articles. We
have about a thousand articles in Boat Talk and it is a wealth
of information. Also, the way the web site looks and works
should be easier to understand We also now have an opportunity
to do new, exciting things with the Club's web site. For
example, we may be able to offer an on-line chat for members. We
will be able to automatically notify you when a reply is
received to an article in Boat Talk. You'll be able to make
changes to your boat for sale listing, much like you can change
your listing in the Owners Album now. Take advantage of the
features we do have. List your boat in the Owners Album - sell
your unneeded Accessories in the Marketplace, read through Boat
Talk and give answers or ideas to other members. We need more
ideas about great cruises. Thank you for your understanding and
patience as we've made these changes. Keep sending your ideas
and suggestions to me. |
Contacting other members
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| The
way to contact another member is to let me know and I'll forward
the contact information to him if I consider that member to be a
trusted source. I also encourage you to put up a posting on Boat
Talk about the conversation since other members may be able to
contribute or have an interest in your issues. |
Features
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| We
have two features this month. The first is a boat for
sale, Poverty Sucks. Bob and Roseanne Sonner are selling
this beautiful 370 Aft Cabin with diesel engines to move to
Florida and a slightly smaller boat.
The second feature is an
article about the effect poor service is having on the large
boat industry. Basically, people are not buying the second
boat, because they are dissatisfied with the warranty service
they receive. Everyone is fingerpointing - maybe there is
another way to approach this problem that has reduced large boat
sales by about 35% as measuered by the number of boats sold. |
| Safe Boating, Dave Bishop, aka webdude@carverownersclub.com |
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